Session 08/22/2010

Cordelia
Our group of adventurers had returned from the Warrens/Slums after following a Locate Object spell looking for a bag from a Gold Goblin. We had thought better of entering into Vai Assassin territory looking for this bag, and instead returned to Saul to update him on what we had found and the involvement of the Vai. He thought that was dire news and we more or less connected that bag with the opening day attempted heist at the Gold Goblin and not the disappearance of Larur the money courier.

While talking with Saul a note came in about a few bouncers becoming sick and missing work. This coincided with the Town Criers noting a strange plague in the docks affecting porters and laborers. We decided that we should check up on them. Saul also told us we had a shipment of liquor that had arrived but with the plague, there was no one to off load or transport the shipment to the Gold Goblin. It sounded like we could get the shipment and check up on our bouncers and the plague all in one big trip.

Bouncers house #1. We found our bouncer being taken care of by his wife. He was genuinely sick and Azzgrimmur the White Dwarf administered to him as best he could. He was able to identify the sickness which worried us all. We wished him well and moved on to the next bouncers house.

Bouncer house #2. We knocked and no one answered so Laezol skillfully picked the lock to the front door. Upon entering we were shocked at the filth and disarray the house was in. It stucnk and no one answered our calls. We intrepidly opened the kitchen door and were engulfed in a wave of noxious fumes! A thick stinking cloud of filth filled the room and caused me to start heaving and retching up my breakfast. We retreated to its edge back by the front door and I thought I may as well investigate the foggy nasty cloud as I was already affected.

I could hardly see 5 ft in front of me and when I was nearly through the kitchen to the back door a grotesque figure emerged from the fog and attacked me. It was the bouncer, but he had been transformed into a pustule covered plague zombie! The noxious gas seemly emanating from him. The zombie missed me and I retreated back to the front door while the others rushed forth to fight the thing.

Ankazzar, the half-orc Oracle, stayed with me near the front door and just as she ventured near the second floor stairs the bouncers wife appeared; a Zombie as well! She was not the same kind it seemed and Ankazzar fought her off bravely on her own while I continued to vomit.

Our party traded blows with the accursed things and could see their flesh mending itself against our blows. The battle it seemed might last longer than we wanted. One by one the group in the kitchen fighting the bouncer within the cloud succumb to the vapors. All except the stalwart Dwarf Azzgrimmur! He fought off its effect at every turn.

Meanwhile I was able to clean my nose of the stench and join Ankazzar against the wife zombie. Together we were able to bring her to her knees. Ankazzar pressed the advantage and releaved the wife zombie of her head. Seeing all things well in hand I charged into the Kitchen and aided the dwarf in felling the Bouncer. We searched their row house for clues, and money, and found nothing of real interest. Only questions about what had really happened and what fate may await all those affected by the plague.

We sent word via messenger to Saul about the bouncers death, next of kin and warning the other bouncer as well as a note to the Church of Lothian and seeking their divine assistance with cleansing the house or further identifying the Plague!

We pushed on worried about the wounds we had incurred against the zombies, towards the docks. Would the bites and scratches be enough to infect us? Could the same fate await us? We hoped luck was on our side as we approached the transport ship The Foam Runner. The ship was captained by a rather brash and flamboyant dwarf with an outrageous accent and giant tattoo of the sun on his chest, which also bared a close resemblance to the Holy Symbol of Sol, the god of light and goodness. He may have been able to talk with us at length about the religion had he not already unloaded our liquor to some unsavory looking gentlemen that we just passed.

We rushed to head off the cart and men. They demanded that we get out of their way and we demanded to know who they worked for and what they thought they were doing with our booze. They said the booze was theirs and they wouldn't let us stop them. I tried to intimidate them and vowed murder them all if they didnt give up. Their apparent leader a man dressed in Imperial Guards arms and armor, order them porters to attack. I cast a Charm Person on the man,a nd pressed my intimidation. Is it really worth dieing for?

I order the man to remove all his things and put them in the cart and while doing so tell us how he came to be stealing our hooch. He complied and let fall that Zincher order his actions, a hefty bribe to the Harbor Master and here he was, a few coin for the porters and the rest we knew.

A Color Spray blew two of the goons into Stunned and Blinded fools. Laezol skewered one of them and here I pressed our advantage. "20 gold if you surrender!" and the remaining goons did just that. After borrowing most of the gold to pay off the men and they gladly ported us and the booze back to the Gold Goblin, where we further interrogated the leader of the booze heist, Bradacar.

Bradacar, it turns out, is a disgraced ex-Imperial Guardsmen, who was caught involved in a protection racket and works for Klegg Zincher now. With Saul's help we may be able to glean more information out of him but he didnt know anything about Larurs disappearance or the Cinder Snakes that appeared in the kitchen of the Gold Goblin.

Surely we will continue to pump him for info. What we do with him after that is yet to be seen. I could just let him go. I could try and convince him that despite what I've done to him he better off than being dead. Zincher isn't his friend. Any time he moves against the Gold Goblin he is moving against us and the lives of the men involved are forfeit. Expendable. Zincher knows that, if fact he is counting on it. Zincher's entire scheme is to get us in trouble and remove us from helping Saul. He probably wont be as happy go lucky once the Charm Person wears off but perhaps he is a man of reason and can see the truth in what I say. Being our ally will extend his lifespan considerably.

Another option would be to sell him to slavers. Seems mean, but also kind of funny and puts some jiggle in my pocket.

Yet another option would be to take him back to The Foam Runner and pay Captain Puck to take him to the next port, or better yet give him a job as a boat hand. I fear he inst cut out for thuggery, although Im sure under Captain Pucks tutelage he could go far in that arena.